Emergence of ITs and copyright law and Napster case

The aforementioned criticism of the existing copyright law and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 specifically is grounded on the widening gap between existing legal norms and new technologies available to individuals today. In this respect, the emergence of information technologies, internet and modern telecommunication systems is particularly significant and affects the copyright law consistently. In fact, the emergence of new technologies allow users to get access and share information and copyright materials via internet and modern telecommunication systems. Naturally, the risk of the unauthorized use of the copyright material increases because users do not always observe legal norms, which are normally applicable to conventional business and copyright law. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the Napster case, which revealed risks of the violation of the copyright law because of the under-regulation of e-business and sharing information and transmission of data via internet. To put it more precisely, Napster allows users to download music for free. In such a situation, owners of the copyright material, i.e. music, are vulnerable to the risk of the violation of their copyright because their music is used without their consent. On the other hand, Napster does not sell the music, whereas users normally download music for the personal use. In such a context, the gap between the existing copyright law and current policies conducted by some companies online widens that implies that legislators have to regulate such policies and practices to prevent the risk of the violation of legal norms through the use of information technologies, internet and modern telecommunication systems.



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